IHS now forecasts that 262 million tablet displays will ship this year, an increase of 6 percent from the firm's previous forecast. The forecasted total represents a 69 percent increase from the 2012 total, according to the firm's latest LCD industry tracking report.

"Competitive dynamics in the tablet market have changed dramatically this year as Chinese white-box smartphone makers have entered the tablet market in droves," said Ricky Park, senior manager for large-area displays at IHS, in a statement.

According to Park, the Chinese firms are producing large quantities of low-end tablets that appeal to consumers in China and other developing economies. As a result, they are driving up demand for tablet panels, especially smaller panels that use the older twisted nematic technology, Park said.

According to IHS, unbranded tablet makers purchased 40 percent of all tablet panels in April, up from 17 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

IHS said it expects shipments of 8- and 9-inch tablet displays to rise by nearly 200 percent in 2013. Shipments of larger displays in the 9-, 10-, and 11-inch range are expected to decline by 5 percent, the firm said.

According to IHS, the Chinese white-box manufacturers are able to produce tablets at lower cost, more quickly and with greater flexibility in production compared to rivals. These companies can also manufacture unbranded tablets while at the same time manufacturing for the major brands on a contract manufacturing basis, IHS said.

"Playing to their strengths, the white-box manufacturers are set to continue to increase their presence in tablets and propel the expansion of the overall tablet market," Park said.

With the upcoming launch of the Bay Trail version of Intel Corp.'s Atom chip, the market for larger tablets with screens of 10 inches and above may begin to recover, according to IHS. Bay Trail could help reduce the cost of x86 microprocessor-based tablets and improve battery life, as well as generating opportunities for hybrid-form tablets that include keyboards, IHS said.

Dylan, I think the big back story here is the chip vendors selling all those ARM processors in the cheap tablets, its not Nvidia or Qualcomm or TI, its companies like Allwinner and they are growing fast. History tells us they could become a force in future in the way all low end suppliers move up the innovation chain (innovators dilemma). Its also a major threat to Intel getting a foothold in mobile; why pay for a high end expensive chip if a cheap one does the job. This is one to watch. Woudl love to see EETimes interview these guys.

The low cost tablets are definitely a competetion but the performance offered by the quallcom, nvidia chipsets doesnt really gets beaten by the low cost processors such as allwinner. This is with the experience that i faced from a low cost lava tablet. The product itself needs amny more quality parts than processor and display to give a great overall experience to user.

Yes there is an overflow of Made in china low cost tablets around the world. The Indian Government tried a lost cost tablet around $35 for students but couldnot meet production pressures. But tablets market is huge just like smartphone.

What is a high end tablet? I have come to find that answer difficult to answer. You can have a good product with low NAND storage which pushes the prices low. It has good processor but one of the main cost factors is low, it does not make it low end. The same applies to some expensive tablets that have bloated metrics but are just expensive. Though we see this packaging as different, most of these devices have a lot in common.

Apple takes in all the money to be made in the tablet hardware space. Rest of the vendors gets barely break even and makes money for Google :) . Google and Amazon has destroyed all chances of anyone making from hardware. EEs should work for free designing chips and hardware and Google is waiting to collect the benefits of that using its software and cheap device strategy